Officer Elise Bouthillier arrived at WHUS studios with her new partner ‘Kes.’ During our conversation, she told me how she became a State Environmental Conservation Police Officer, what her job entails, how she goes about doing it, and some of the good stuff and bad stuff.
Below are some photos she provided to me after our interview, showing some of the work she’s been involved in.
Officer Bouthillier explains that this was “a routine call for service in East Haddam – a landowner discovered this buckshot by an arrow on his property – turned into a bit more. The deer was most likely legally taken, as it was during archery season, but we had no way of knowing who had shot the deer as they can run over a mile sometimes. The landowner did not want the deer so we were in the process of removing it from the property in order to donate the meat to Hunters for the Hungry, when a man who lives nearby trespassed onto the property in order to water his “garden”. He informed us his landlord told him he could not grow the plants outside of his apartment so he transplanted them next door. This picture was taken at our Eastern District Headquarters in Marlborough just prior to the marijuana plants being disposed of in a burn barrel.“
Photo credit to now-retired Officer Scott Arsenault.
“One of the first major cases I worked, sometime in the winter of 2011, we had an anonymous tip that two individuals were bringing in large catches of striped bass to a private dock in Stonington. Anglers are only allowed to keep one striped bass a day and there is no commercial season. These two men brought in 11 between the two of them, which totaled over 800 pounds of fish, which they were most likely illegally selling to local restaurants.“
Photo credit to now-retired Officer Mike Tavares.
Interview recorded on January 31, 2020. Musical theme: “Cascades” Podington Bear, Soundofpicture.com.
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